In my previous post I addressed the challenge of looking outside of the box regarding plastic and paper since it is not possible to eliminate such a widespread use of substance in our society. There are many good merits in both that make it important to maintain them for the time being. Customer negligence and recklessness in consuming excessive bags is a right in America. However, we have the means to create incentives for people to rethink their choices by form of taxation and other methods. People respond to their expectations and supply/demand outcomes. If bags increased in cost such as gasoline, people will respond to that by adapting.

Other approaches are to “outlaw” the use of plastic bags at merchants. However, there are dire consequences and it needs to be assessed for it’s overall impact on not only the environment but the economies in the state of Oregon.

Recently a bill from the Senate, numbered 536 would outlaw the use of single use bags at grocery stores would seem to be a logical step in the reduction of bag consumption as seeing that it is the number one offender at these locations.

This has it’s merits but what about the recycling efforts? I have yet to see a real solution that customers have felt responsive towards. The at curb recycling does not allow for disposal of plastic bags because they muck up the equipment at recycling facilities. Some states already operate with a single stream recycling equipment which allows for water usage to float the heavy from the light in plastics but it consumes prohibitively high amounts of water that is needed to sustain human needs.

The point is that governments and people have not addressed enough of the other outlying issues that really could make an immediate impact instead of bickering back and forth about how to eliminate or the choice of one or the other (of which has been going on for some time now with no end in sight).

I propose that we ramp up with some sort of innovative way to allow for separate pick up of plastic bags at the curbside without increasing significant amounts of man hours by recyclers. I realize that there are economic consequences of such. Or perhaps, implementation of policies that require customers to return a x amount of bags from their previous visit in order to qualify for free bag swaps instead of having to pay for a tax on it.

We also have a lot of other issues that need to be observed and I am pleased that the bag ban is a step towards making some kind of dent instead of standing around and waiting for something to happen. However, the importance is to assess what immediate impacts we can utilize at this current time.

Paper bags come from lots and lots of trees. Companies like Weyerhaeuser and Plum Creek Timber harvest them. Kimberly Clark also harvests them. The paper bags have to go through a long process to get to the grocery store, but using paper bags can be very damaging to the environment because of all the different processes that it has to go through before it is a final product. First the trees are found, and then they have to be marked for felling. This causes the land to undergo clear cutting, which in turn, harms the land tremendously.

Then, to extract the trees from the landscape, big machines have to come in, which damage the terrain and consume fossil fuels, which in turn harm the environment terribly. After collection, the trees have to dry for three years before they can be stripped and then processed by more machinery and chemicals. What is amazing though, is after the trees are boiled down to pulp, it takes 3 tons of wood to make 1 ton of pulp.

The pulp is then washed and bleached and coloring is added to make the paper bag seem colorful later on. The pulp is then dumped onto metal wire structures and then it is rolled into paper. This is how paper bags come into existence and it is obvious that the entire process is very harmful to the environment, thus making paper bags a poor choice.

About EcoMerge:

Our commitment in this Portland State University ongoing capstone
project is to explore the intersects between economical and ecological
systems and inform the reader, four times a year, on different major
topical themes. Grocery Bags is the subject of focus on this site.